Swimming & Diving (M)

2009-10 season preview

Oct 28, 2009

NORTON, MA- Successful men's and women's swimming & diving
seasons for Wheaton College head coach Jean-Paul
Gowdy goes well beyond the scope of dual-meet records or
conference championship finishes, as the seventh-year coach is
careful not to get too far ahead of himself, especially this time
of year.

"Every year is different," said Gowdy, who welcomes the largest
squads in program history. "Athletes who had a great year
still need to come back this year and prove themselves, as those
swimmers and divers don't automatically become great again.
Occasionally, I find myself taking a step back and thinking if
things come together we could be in a good place at the end of the
year."

Wheaton's 28-member women's squad returns to the pool following
a year in which the Lyons sent a program-high four athletes to the
NCAA Championship, where their relay team earned the team's first
All-America accolades, while matching their best finish of third at
the 10-school New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference
(NEWMAC) Championship. Wheaton went 9-6-1 on the year.

Eighteen athletes on the men's side, including 15 returners,
look to better their fifth-place finish at the conference meet, as
the Lyons were a mere five points shy of fourth place during the
seven-team championship. In dual meets, Wheaton went 4-12
against tough regional competition.

Gowdy, who is joined on the coaching staff by fourth-year diving
coach Katy Shoemaker, third-year swimming
assistant Mary Ellen McLaughlin, second-year
assistant Jim Martin and first-year assistant
Zach Hicks '07, believes each of his teams have
the potential to surpass last year's success but also recognizes
there is more to the experience than getting his athletes to
improve.

"With our sport being training-based and knowing the
challenges," said the 2009 women's swimming conference coach of the
year, "one of the things I work hard at is finding a healthy
balance with the teams. If we're to be successful, as much as
I want to drive, drive, drive, sometimes I need to pull back a
little bit and take some time here or there and do some different
activities that the athletes appreciate and keep them mentally in a
good place."

Gowdy's work appears to be paying off, as the women welcome back
all 19 possible returners from a year ago while the men bring back
all but two. Depth won't come into play much for dual meets,
but because of the way the conference meet is set up, where there
are no limits on squad size or number of scorers, taking a large
amount of athletes to the league championships will provide more
scoring chances.

"Having a number of athletes at the top of a conference is
important, which we've been fortunate to have over the years," said
Gowdy, "but the way you win a conference meet is not by just having
four or five really fast swimmers, but by having an additional
group of swimmers and divers that can score critical points.
If you're able to accomplish that, then you should be in good
shape. Certainly from that standpoint, we're better off than
we've ever been."

Last year, the women came within 19.5 points of second place at
the NEWMAC Championship, totaling 640.5 points. The Lyons
also turned in their first national placement, finishing in a tie
for 48th at the NCAA Championship.

Playing a huge role in Wheaton's national showing were juniors
Samantha Farrell (Reading, MA/Reading Memorial),
Stephany Perkins (Monmouth, ME/Monmouth Academy),
Dania Piscetta (Belmont, NH/Belmont) and
Nicole Zais (Sudbury, MA/Lincoln-Sudbury
Regional), who earned NCAA All-America honorable mention
accolades after taking 14th in the country in the 200-yard
freestyle relay. Zais posted a program-record five
all-conference marks as a sophomore, Piscetta turned in four,
Perkins recorded two, and Farrell had one.

Senior co-captain Iris Meehan (Bar Harbor, ME/Mount
Desert Island) produced one all-league placement, as did
sophomore Taryn Brosnan (Westford, MA/Academy of Notre
Dame). Senior Sarah Houlihan (West
Springfield, MA/West Springfield) joins Meehan as a
co-captain, as the aforementioned seven athletes have their names
attached to 18 school records, including 13 individual marks, as
the Lyons broke 21 of 25 program standards last year.

John Ahern (Boxboro, MA/Acton-Boxboro Regional)
is the lone senior on the men's squad, while tri-captains
Corey Best (Brentwood, TN/Ravenwood), Sam Dean-Lee (Rocky Hill, CT/Xavier) and Ben Sabol
(Saint Petersburg, FL/Shorecrest Prep) comprise half of
the six-member junior class, with Best and Dean-Lee serving as
captains for the second year. Dean-Lee is the Wheaton record
holder in three freestyle events in addition to swimming a leg on
the school's top 800-yard freestyle relay team, while Best owns
marks in the 200-yard butterfly and 200- and 400-yard individual
medleys.

Both squads begin the season today at Roger Williams University
before hosting Brandeis University and Worcester Polytechnic
Institute (WPI) on Saturday. In addition to a heavy dual
slate, the Lyons will compete at the Charlie Batterman Relays on
November 7, the two-day Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Invitational in early December and the Wheaton Invitational in
February.

The women travel to Wellesley College for the three-day NEWMAC
Championship, beginning on February 19, before Wheaton hosts the
men's meet for the second straight season and the fourth time in
the last five years the following weekend. The four-day NCAA
Championship returns to the University of Minnesota from March
17-20.

"A successful season will be the men and women getting a ton of
personal bests," said Gowdy. "If we're getting personal bests
we're going to be scoring a lot of points at the conference meets,
and if we're scoring a lot of points we're going to give ourselves
a great shot to move up on the men's side and contend for a title
on the women's side. Last year, our athletes recorded
personal bests in more than 90 percent of the events during the
NEWMAC meets. If we're up near there again with either team
we're going to be in great shape."